This invention relates to the handling of large bales of hay, and more particularly concerns a device for handling spirally wound cylindrical bales.
The use of spirally wound bales of hay has become very popular in recent years for various reasons. Such bales may typically have a diameter of about six feet and an axially length of about five feet. However, their large size and weight, often 1500 to 2000 pounds, creates special problems in their handling and transportation. Handling devices have earlier been diclosed, but most of them are relatively complicated and hence expensive, requiring complex structure and operating features not useful for purposes other than bale handling. Other devices have been created which are inexpensive attachments to tractors, trucks, or other farm vehicles. These devices have been generally designed to impale and tranport bales. Such devices generally must be manually attached to the farm vehicle prior to use, and removed before the vehicle is used for other purposes. Furthermore, attached devices of this type have not been able to positively unwind the spirally wound bale in a manner to control the feed out of hay from the bale.
A front end loader, often referred to as a bucket loader, is a widely used piece of equipment found in many commercial and industrial applications such as construction and excavating operations, and numerous agricultural applications, including farming and livestock activities. Bucket loaders are of various sizes and configurations, but basically include a prime mover, such as a tractor or the like, having a pair of pivotably supported lift arms that are hydraulically driven to raise or lower a bucket attached to the ends of the lift arms and disposed in front of the tractor. A hydraulic cylinder is generally used to pivot the bucket about a horizontal axis so as to move the bucket from a load receiving to a load discharging position, and vise-versa. The primary use of a bucket loader is to transfer bulk materials such as sand, gravel, earth, manure, etc., from one location to another. For example, bucket loaders are used in livestock operations for scooping manure from the livestock pens and loading same on a spreader, while in construction operations a bucket loader may typically be used to transfer earth from a pile into a dump truck.
A common accessory to the bucket loader is the addition of a multiplicity of forwardly diposed grapple teeth downwardly directed from a framework which is pivotably connected to the top of the bucket structure. A hydraulic cylinder is used to pivot the grapple teeth framework about a horizontal axis in order to embrace large objects such as hay bales or loose compactible material such as loose hay. The grapple teeth may be pivoted to the upward position so as not to interfere with the operation of the bucket when handling normal bulk materials which do not require embracing.
Due to the large investment in a bucket loader, and for other reasons, it has been common practice to adapt bucket loaders to perform operations other than the transferring of bulk materials. This practice adds versatility to the loader and thereby eliminates the need and associated costs for using separate pieces of equipment or tools to perform these separately desired operations. Several bucket-attached devices for handling hay bales have been earlier disclosed.
One such example of a handler for large round bales is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,405, wherein accessory structure having three spear-shaped bale engaging prongs is attached to a front-end loader. However, emplacement of the accessory structure requires that the bucket be removed, permitting the accesory structure to be directly attached to the lift or boom arms of the loader. Also the carried bale cannot be rotated.
Another type of round bale handler is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,837, wherein a pair of forks are attached by brackets to the sidewalls of the bucket.
Yet another round bale handler is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,103, wherein the bale handling device must be removed to permit conventional use of the bucket loader.
The above-described bucket loader conversion units or attachments all suffer various shortcomings. Specifically none of these units are designed to controllably unwind hay from the round bale, and none are designed to be used in conjunction with a bucket loader equipped with accessory graple teeth. Although some prior conversion units have advantages over other ones and certain ones have specific disadvantages, it can be concluded that there exists a need for an improved bucket loader conversion attachment which does not interfere with normal functions of the bucket. There also exists a need for a bale handling device which can controllably dispense hay from the bale and which will function in conjunction with grapple teeth.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a device adapted to mount upon the bucket of a front end loader to lift and transport hay bales.
It is another object of this invention to provide a device of the aforesaid nature which may be used on a bucket having grapple teeth.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device of the aforesaid nature which does not need to be removed from the bucket to permit other uses of the loader.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a device of the aforesaid nature which has means to controllably and rotationally pay out hay from the bale while being suspended or transported.